This CRT cheat sheet strips the Therapist Multiple-Choice (TMC) Examination down to the facts the NBRC tests most, in a printable format you can scan in minutes. It's a premium cheat sheet built by Capital Prep — the one premium prep we trust — and it's yours free. Reinforce it with the rest of your free CRT toolkit: the practice test, study guide, and flashcards.
CRT exam at a glance
- Exam behind it: Therapist Multiple-Choice (TMC) Examination — earns the CRT at the low cut score
- Questions: 160 items (140 scored + 20 unscored pretest)
- Time: 3 hours
- Passing: Two cut scores — low cut earns the CRT; high cut adds eligibility for the Clinical Simulation Examination toward the RRT
- Cost: Approximately $190 (new) / $150 (repeat) — verify at nbrc.org
- Administered by: National Board for Respiratory Care (NBRC), at Pearson VUE
What’s on the CRT cheat sheet
- Patient Data Evaluation (~50 scored items) — the 5-step ABG method, acid-base disorders and compensation, the anion gap and Winter's formula, P/F ratio, A-a gradient, CO-oximetry, and spirometry patterns.
- Troubleshooting, QC & Infection Control (~20 scored items) — oxygen-delivery devices, flowmeters, cylinder-duration math, analyzer quality control, the Spaulding classification, and isolation precautions.
- Initiation & Modification of Interventions (~70 scored items) — airway management, ventilation modes and PEEP, CPAP vs BiPAP, weaning, bronchodilators and mucolytics — the largest area, half the exam.
- The CRT-vs-RRT cut-score map — one TMC exam, two cut scores: which facts push you across the low cut for the CRT and the high cut toward the RRT.
How to use it in your final week
- Front-load Initiation and Modification of Interventions — it is roughly 70 of the 140 scored items, so ventilation, airways, oxygen therapy, and pharmacology move your score the most.
- Drill the calculations until they're reflexive: P/F ratio (PaO2 ÷ FiO2), anion gap (Na − [Cl + HCO3]), Winter's formula (1.5 × HCO3 + 8), and cylinder duration (factor × psig ÷ flow).
- Re-read the CRT-vs-RRT cut-score box the night before so the low-cut/high-cut distinction is automatic under pressure.
- Pair each review pass with a short timed set — 160 items in 3 hours is about 68 seconds each — so the pacing feels routine on exam day.
The cheat sheet is your review layer — your CRT practice test drives the exam-readiness ring at the top of this page. Download it, review, then take a full practice exam (or drill with the study guide and flashcards) to see where you stand.
CRT cheat sheet FAQ
Yes — the CRT cheat sheet downloads as a PDF with no account and no sign-up. It sits alongside the free Career Employer CRT toolkit: the practice test, the study guide, and the flashcards, all built around the same NBRC content.
It condenses the highest-yield facts behind the Therapist Multiple-Choice (TMC) Examination into a quick reference: the 5-step ABG method, oxygenation math, oxygen-delivery devices, ventilation and PEEP, infection control, and the CRT-vs-RRT cut-score decision — grouped by the three NBRC content areas.
It spells out the one thing candidates confuse most: there is a single TMC exam scored against two cut scores. The low cut earns the CRT; the high cut earns the CRT plus eligibility for the Clinical Simulation Examination toward the RRT, so the sheet flags which facts move you across each line.
No — the sheet is a review and last-week cram layer, not a substitute for working full-length questions. The TMC rewards applied clinical reasoning across 160 items in 3 hours, so use the sheet to lock in facts and the practice test to build your readiness score.
It reflects the current NBRC TMC structure that earns the CRT through 2026, and we review it against the NBRC content outlines. Note the NBRC replaces the TMC with a restructured Respiratory Therapy Examination in January 2027 — always confirm the live format on nbrc.org before you test.
References
- 1.National Board for Respiratory Care. “Certified Respiratory Therapist (CRT).” nbrc.org, 2026. ↑
- 2.National Board for Respiratory Care. “Therapist Multiple-Choice (TMC) Examination.” nbrc.org, 2026. ↑
- 3.National Board for Respiratory Care. “Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT).” nbrc.org, 2026. ↑
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